Floatinghead's ramblings about music and music-related themes interspersed with various interludes and home of Cabeza de Vaca radio show on Scanner FM, Barcelona.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

P056: Cabeza de Vaca – ASC

Sometimes it is hard to judge the success
of an artist, especially prolific ones like James Clements or ASC, the focus of this week’s show on Cabeza de Vaca and Scanner FM
. Sometimes ASC tracks seem to everywhere and
nowhere at the same time. ASC is the go-to artist on some of the biggest
left-field labels around such as the first Exit records compilation "Mosaic 1",
the two epic Samural Music and Samurai Horo compilations from this year, as
well as his own releases often on his own label’s like Auxiliary music and his
new imprint Veil. ASC has been prolific and critically lauded. Yet why doesn’t his
name come more quickly to mind when thinking of electronic music? Where is his
presence on the festival scene? Maybe there is an element of politics somewhere
there or the absence of a bonafide hit that somehow keeps Clements glued to the
fringes? Perhaps it is an artistic choice? Certainly his cross-scene movements
make it more difficult for media and electronic music’s micro movements hard to
pin him down.

As usual, our show finds ASC at a
crossroads. We use one of his tracks to sign post the mighty and unmissable
Samurai Horo compilation of abstract and ambient drum n bass which feels closer
to glitch and a missed offshoot of ~scape than something likely to come out of
Metalheadz or the like.

Last years “Way of the samurai 2”
compilationfrom the same label family, and of course featuring ASC, was a little more traditional, although built
from the same sparse tool kit with plenty of dub elements.

ASCs own Auxiliary label released a
compilation themselves earlier this tear and collecting some of the highlights
from the labels roster including AnD, Fis (who also has his own links with the
Samurai Music roster), Sam KDC (ditto and a long-term collaborator with ASC)
and the man himself:

Not content with that Clements has also
recently debuted a new sublabel Veil to complement Auxiliary Transmissions and
Diode. As well as Sam KDC and Christine Vaccine who will appear in a future
show, the first of the Veil label collection 12”s features another collaboration
between ASC and Synth Sense, the drum n bass duo from Ashford in Kent in the UK
who have contributed to the other sublabels.

ASCs only album release to date in 2013 has
been a recent double CD set for Canada’s Silent Season imprint from the middle
of the year, but arriving in my hands just too late to feature on the show.

If some of these tracks sound a little similar
to Bvdub it may also be because the two collaborated several years ago on a
split single for Auxiliary.

And ASC does not stop it appears. Even
since putting the show up he has released the second Veil split single